Residential Glee & Missoula April 30, 2007
Trouble with windows…
| I’m having trouble right with windows right now. It’s not what you think; not your take-over-the-world, Bill Gates & Monkey-Boy windows. Almost a month and a half ago, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Lowes to order replacement windows for our home. Here’s the story so far… |  |
Lowes had recently become our retailer of choice, so we wandered into their millworks department where a kind sales associate helped hook us up with Lowes’ window contracter of choice, Erick Prather of Montana Millwork. A very pleasant Erick came to our home and measured the five windows to be replaced.
Two weeks later, Erick and his crew appeared again with our windows, successfully installing four of them. The fifth window, however, was ordered incorrectly (eight inches too short, to be exact). This particular piece of hardware - the largest of the five - happened to be the living-room window, and the one for which my wife and I were the most excited. We were annoyed, but said nothing to our friends at Lowes. I figured they were already suffering enough, stuck with a window they’re forced to now try and sell. There’s not much we could do but wait…
Three weeks later…this morning to be exact…our window arrived. When my phone rang this morning, I happily greeted Erick on the phone, eager to hear what he had to say. He wanted to take advantage of an opening he had today to get the window installed, so I left work to meet him. Before he arrived I moved the coffee and end tables across the living room, scooted our couch across the wood floor, and removed the curtains and curtain rod from the wall to make sure nothing could stand in the way of getting our 1978 monstrosity of a window out of that wall.
Erick triumphantly arrived, waving as he parked. Smiling, I shook his hand as his associate opened the back door of the truck. Erick hopped up into the truck, and uncovered the window. I watched his shoulders and neck slump forward as his mouth dropped.
“No grid,” he succinctly stated.
I looked up at the beautiful new window and, sure enough, the colonial grid (built between the glass panes of the other four windows) was not present. I frowned as my heart sank. The three of us stood there, stupified in awkward silence. It was almost as though they expected me to pull out a madman rant, condemning Lowes for its error.
Erick couldn’t hide the fact he was pissed off and sorely disappointed. However, it wasn’t his fault and, though I made it clear I was well aware of this (I was there when he asked them to reorder the first time), he still felt the need to play the role of inbetween-guy and apologize profusely. They re-reordered the window, and it’ll be another couple weeks until we see our living room transformed. This time Erick said he’s going in to personally view the order and be sure it’s correct.
I was willing to ignore the first mishap, but a couple hours ago I gave the Lowes installation department a call to address this one. I played the role of the creepily-composed guy, calmly requesting they do something to make this wait a bit more palatable…something to remove the sour taste in my mouth. It was clear to me the install department was painfully aware of my situation, because Erick had (evidently) already given them a piece of his mind. The associate on the other end of the phone tentatively offered me 10% off the cost of the window (around $42). Apparently expecting my rejection of her offer, she quickly followed my refusal by telling me a manager would call me as soon as possible.
Four days later, I called Lowes again. As the phone rang, I wondered whether they had simply forgotten their promise or had knowingly ignored it. This time, the kind sales associate handed the phone directly to the Install Manager. She gave me a second offer - 20% off the cost of the window (around $84). She made it clear I could appeal to the General Manager, but I decided to accept the credit. I verified the details of the order to be sure EVERYTHING was correct, and wished her a pleasant afternoon.
It’s interesting how two seemingly small errors can turn into such an ordeal. To Lowes’ credit, however, I will say each person with whom I have personally dealt has been pleasant and courteous. They all seem interested in keeping their customers happy by resolving the situation. Timeliness, however, doesn’t seem to matter. This in mind, I’ll post updates in a few weeks to let you know how everything turns out.
*Update, 6-22-07: Okay, so it’s been more than a few weeks…what can I say? I forgot about my promise. Everything turned out beautifully. The front window looks better than we imagined it could, and we couldn’t be happier.